Skip to main content

Rain: Poems and Photographs.

The First Rain    by Yehuda Amichai
The first rain reminds me
Of the rising summer dust.
The rain doesn't remember the rain of yesteryear.
A year is a trained beast with no memories.
Soon you will again wear your harnesses,
Beautiful and embroidered, to hold
Sheer stockings: you
Mare and harnesser in one body.
The white panic of soft flesh
In the panic of a sudden vision
Of ancient saints.
Morning Rain  by Tu Fu
A slight rain comes, bathed in dawn light.
I hear it among treetop leaves before mist
Arrives. Soon it sprinkles the soil and,
Windblown, follows clouds away. Deepened

Colors grace thatch homes for a moment.
Flocks and herds of things wild glisten
Faintly. Then the scent of musk opens across
Half a mountain -- and lingers on past noon.  


Like Rain it Sounded Till it Curved
by Emily Dickinson
Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew 'twas Wind --
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand --
When it had pushed itself away
To some remotest Plain
A coming as of Hosts was heard
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools
It warbled in the Road --
It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the Floods abroad --
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of Centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a Wheel of Cloud. 


Popular posts from this blog

Balthus

I come to Paris to be reminded that art and love are one and the same. Both are driven by a desire for wholeness, creativity, truth, surprise. At the Centre Pompidou, I saw a Balthus that was just donated to the museum. I haven't seen a reproduction of it anywhere and, standing there, I felt that coming all the way to Paris was worth it just to see this one painting.   A new Balthus at the Pompidou, Paris Art, like love, sometimes involves transgression. Balthus said, "  I want to proclaim in broad daylight, with sincerity and feeling, all the throbbing tragedy of a drama of the flesh, proclaim vociferously, the deep-rooted laws of instinct." I learned to love Balthus as a student in Wayne Thiebaud's painting class in college.  From the perspective of the painter looking at a Balthus, one quickly sees past the erotic elements and is struck by his masterful technique, a method based on years spent on one painting, using paints hand mixed each morning by his wife,...
Read more

George Washington High School and Art Education

“If an  offense come  out of the  truth ,  better  is it that the  offense come than   that the  truth be concealed .”  Thomas Hardy George Washington High School in San Francisco is unique amongst other institutions bearing Washington's name. It is a treasure trove of New Deal WPA art that includes architecture, bas-reliefs, "buon fresco" murals and freestanding sculptures. These extend from the football field to the library. The school features an "Olympics" frieze by African American sculptor Sargent Johnson, and its architect was the pre-eminent Timothy L. Pflueger. This school, its name and even the site correlate conceptually. It was designed to showcase outstanding art and provoke reflection. The Sargent Johnson frieze In thousands of American high schools, AP Art History students learn about George Washington by studying a sculpture by Houdon. It is described in most textbooks with only a paragraph. On the back of this sculpture is a ...
Read more

Farewell to a Teacher

I can easily say that Wayne Thiebaud transformed my understanding of painting. After finishing high school, I took an art history class at my community college. The instructor declared that if any of us aspired to become artists, we should go to UC Davis because some of the best artists in the country, people like Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson, taught there. Arneson's bust of the slain George Moscone had recently propelled him to international fame. I knew nothing about these people but I read about the art department and decided to apply. Its graduate program was ranked #1 in the country. As the first person in my family to attend college, even to finish high school, this was a scary but exciting step. Going to Davis meant I was serious about studying art, and would no longer be burdened by familial expectations of shepherding.  I took at least three classes with Wayne- drawing and painting, and a class on "Theory and Criticism" of painting. This last class was perha...
Read more